Knock on Wood

Press, 5 March 1987, Page 18

Knock on Wood

J. Wood, the American blues guitarist, features in an “evening of the blues” at the Marine Tavern, Sumner, on Sunday, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Wood, who is on a short visit of New Zealand and Australia, said that there had been a resurgence in the blues in the United States. The resurgence was more contemporary and improvised than the swing to the blues in the 1960 s when artists then had discovered “the old masters” and used their material.

Wood has been a professional musician since 15 years of age, and has

played with such blues guitarists as Albert King, and Albert Collins. Originally based in Chicago, he has been living in the San Francisco bay area for the last four years.

Wood is at present working on a new album, “Deaf, Dumb, Crippled, and Blind,” which he hopes to complete for the Suds label when he gets back. He also has two other albums in the pipeline, also on independent labels, but these are “on the backburner,” pending successful negotiations.

Others featured at the blues evening will be the Ranchsliders and members of Big Elvis, plus

Keith Palmer, the singer from Fat Sally, Stu Campbell, the pianist from Cleopatra and the Egyptians, and Helen Mulholland, former vocalist for Louie and the Hotsticks. Tickets are on sale at the Marine Tavern and Echo records. It is also blues at the Playroom, MacKenzies Hotel, with the Backdoor Blues Band on this evening, and Midge Marsden and the Spaghettis, tomorrow and Saturday evenings.

The Backdoor Blues Band also plays at Lincoln College’s orientation festival tomorrow evening, with Mainland Blues.